23 may
Kazakhstan is among the top ten leading countries in the world in terms of proven reserves of most types of minerals. However, with the current intensive production, the country is approaching their depletion in the near future. But the state of the economy directly depends on the reserves in the subsurface, and therefore the state is currently resuming active geological exploration.
Read about the problems and prospects in this industry in the material of the analytical observer MIA "Kazinform".
Intensive mining can lead to the depletion of mineral reserves
The Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources predicts that the reserves of many existing deposits, without appropriate replenishment, will be depleted in the near future. According to the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the extractive sector of the economy provides about 30% of GDP. The geological industry of the country is responsible for the replenishment of reserves and the exploration of new deposits. Therefore, now there is a need to pay special attention to this industry. It must be admitted that geological exploration in Kazakhstan is not developed. For 30 years, not a single deposit has been discovered in the country. And this happened for a number of objective reasons.
History
In Soviet times, the stake was placed only on the search and development of large deposits in order to ensure the supply of three or more republics at once. If there were small ones, then they were not considered, but they were looking for giant deposits. All these years, work has been carried out on already discovered deposits. The extracted resources were enough both for internal provision and for sale abroad. In 2020-2022, the volume of state investments in exploration amounted to 30 billion tenge. At the moment, Kazakhstan is characterized by a low rate of investment in the industry. There is only $11 per 1 km². In Australia, for example, $167, and in Canada - $203. Such investments bring visible results, which are reflected in the living standards of these countries.
Why is exploration important for the economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan?
According to Almaz Abildaev, an energy expert and director of the Energy Aspects of Kazakhstan Center, now is the time to realize how important the development of geological exploration is for the state's economy. “Kazakhstan is a country with raw materials. The country exports minerals and resources, is engaged in ensuring regional and global energy security, and accordingly earns. Realizing that the main income is the sale of raw materials, it would be logically better to increase the supply of raw materials, increasing the variety of such green economy rare earths that are still in demand, such as lithium, nickel and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to invest in exploration in order to continue to produce and strengthen export orientation. After all, at the expense of earned funds, the state provides energy and social security of the population. The country sells outside and solves the problems of domestic consumption, provision of heat and electricity”, - said the expert. The total oil production in the country, as the expert noted, amounted to 86 million tons in 2021. At the same time, the internal demand for oil is 17 million tons, the rest of Kazakhstan supplies to world markets.
“The subsoil works for the population, but now they are close to depletion, and there is a need for replenishment of resources on the balance of the country. All this is due to the lack of real results in geological exploration in recent years. And for a foreign investor, more explored areas and blocks are of interest, those for which a decision has already been made to involve them in the development of deposits. Recently, we see that the state has begun to realize the importance of the issue of geological exploration and is beginning to direct forces in this direction. There is a firm intention to increase investment in this industry”, – the speaker notes. In his opinion, it is possible to intensify the development of the industry from those small deposits that were discovered back in Soviet times and abandoned due to their small size. To date, according to the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, for the development of geology, facilitated licensing for the search for solid minerals has already been introduced and conditions have been created for small exploration companies. Now, the geological industry, as part of the execution of the President's instructions, is facing priority tasks, which are reflected in the new Concept for the Development of the Geological Industry until 2025.
The Ministry of Ecology is preparing to search for new deposits of oil and metals
As international experience shows, investors invest in exploration of deposits in those countries where the state has already carried out or is conducting early stages of work at its own expense, where a base of promising areas with predicted resources has already been formed. To date, more than 8,000 deposits have been registered on the state balance of minerals in the country. Of these, 317 are hydrocarbons, 910 are solid minerals, more than 3,000 common minerals and about 4,000 groundwater deposits. The balance reserves of oil in Kazakhstan amount to 4.4 billion tons, gas - 3.8 trillion m³, condensate - 414 million tons. Also, the calculation of reserves of solid minerals is carried out for 37 types of metallic minerals and 65 types of non-metals. According to the MEGPR, the state has about 4 thousand deposits with approved reserves of 43 million m³ / day. Now Kazakhstan plans to intensify the state geological study of the subsoil, which is one of the main methods for identifying promising areas and objects for subsequent transfer to subsoil use.
According to the Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources Serikkali Brekeshev, geological additional study of the areas, geological and mineralogical and deep geological mapping are currently being carried out. According to him, there are significant prospects for discovering new deposits in Kazakhstan. So, in terms of hydrocarbons, geologists distinguish 15 sedimentary basins with predicted equivalent fuel resources of about 76 billion tons and varying degrees of exploration. Today, the entire volume of oil and gas production falls on 5 developed basins. Of these, the Caspian is considered the largest, which accounts for about 80% of the country's resource base.
Also, the country has potential opportunities for the development of the mineral resource base of gold and the copper ore industry in Central, Eastern and Southern Kazakhstan. There are prospects for the discovery of new deposits of tungsten, molybdenum, aluminum, tin, as well as rare metals. Given the situation in the Kyzylorda region, the Ministry of Ecology plans to assess the raw material potential of the Aral Sea basin. In addition, projects are being drawn up for the study of the Shu-Sarysu, Severo-Torgai and Syrdarya poorly explored basins. “As part of the execution of the order of the head of state, to ensure the stable functioning of the city-forming enterprises, prospecting is carried out at seven promising sites located near the single-industry towns of Ridder, Khromtau, Zhezkazgan, Temirtau and Balkhash, the basis of the economy of which is the mining and metallurgical complex”, -said the Minister of Ecology at a government meeting. In addition, given the current trends in the world market and the increased demand for rare and rare earth metals, as well as lithium, special attention is paid to identifying promising areas for these types of raw materials. For example, this year, work continues to identify rare metals at the Kara-Ayak and Muncha sites. Competitive procedures for the beginning of work to determine the prospects for the identification of rare earth metals are carried out in 12 sites. In general, the head of the Ministry of Ecology noted that by 2026 the exploration of the territory of Kazakhstan will increase by 680 thousand square meters. km and will be increased to 2.2 million sq. km. Serikkali Brekeshev, using the example of the promising Eurasia area, showed how exploration funding breaks down.
Why is it necessary to develop domestic geological science?
The discovery of new deposits every year is becoming more complex and expensive. Therefore, it is necessary to develop geological science in order to justify the risks and justify the costs of geological exploration. In order to develop science, as well as to provide raw materials for the manufacturing industry, the National Geological Survey was created. It should be noted that the direction "Development of the geological industry" is provided within the framework of the National project "Sustainable economic growth aimed at improving the welfare of Kazakhstanis". According to the relevant ministry, more than 5 billion tenge is planned to be spent on science in the field of geology in the near future.
The information system of geology and subsoil use will simplify the search for objects for investors
And how does the Government plan to attract investors to the industry? To attract investors to exploration, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov instructed to create an information system in the field of geology and subsoil use, which will simplify the access of investors to geological information, because investors prefer already studied and prepared information about promising areas. Until the end of the year, the Ministry of Ecology, together with the Ministries of Digital Development, Energy and Industry, was entrusted with the development and implementation of the KAZNEDRA platform. Also, the Program for managing the state subsoil fund will be updated, which will allow obtaining the right to exploration and production. To do this, within a month the entire territory of the republic available for subsoil use will be included in the Program. In addition, the Government promised that the procedures for extending existing contracts for subsoil use would be simplified. Now they take up a lot of time.
The development of geological exploration will strengthen the energy security of the country
According to Almaz Abildaev, an energy expert, the development of geological exploration will enhance the country's energy security.
“For example, at the moment, the state-owned company almost does not produce gas, as such. It also depends on exploration. The state needs to develop its own gas production, as in Uzbekistan and Russia. Not only the energy, but also the environmental security of the country will depend on this,”, the expert believes. In addition, he outlined the problem of shortage and departure of specialists due to age.
“Since geology has not developed in Kazakhstan for a long time, at the moment there is a problem of transition of professionals to other professions, as well as the retirement of specialists trained in the Soviet era due to age. Therefore, an integrated approach is important here, setting a long-term and feasible strategy, and tasks with specific knowledge of what kind of energy policy to pursue”, - the analyst expressed his opinion. According to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, today the contingent of students in the direction of "Geology" is a bachelor's degree - 483 people, a master's degree - 5 people, doctoral studies - 2 people. It should be noted that during his visit to the Republic of Turkey on May 10-11 this year, the head of state announced that Kazakhstan could offer 5 ready-made projects in the field of exploration of precious and non-ferrous metals to Turkish investors.
Illustrative photo from open sources